Thursday, July 16, 2015

I am concerned that we have developed a culture that is fixated on
Sex and Gender while failing profoundly in intimacy and love.
in contrast...

I John 1 is about the kind of fellowship that puts God at the center --
humble, honest, and healing... In the whole book of I John the words
light & love are inter-changable for agape' love, and as my Orthodox
friends would say... "Love rightly held in the heart is an expression
of the energies of God and is part of God's very presence with us". It
is God's presence that we desire and this is what is most desired in the
Christian understanding of "Fellowship".

God centered love...
"Agape' " is focused on the ultimate good of the other. or as my friend
and mentor Dr. James Loder use to say, "Love is the non-posessive
delight in the uniqueness of another". While orgastic pleasures have a
place in culture... it should not be the center piece of any culture
because it will create patterns of binding and bondage rather than
freedom. It is the truth that love does not turn the other into an
object to be possessed that is essential to being in relationship with
one another... that makes agape' love what it is... Even "my wife" does
not want to be treated like an object. She is a person of profound
value and worth. And we together never escape the presence of God who
is with us always and wants to be included in all of our intimacies.

Instead of creating environments that nourishes being... we have
created environments that encourage consumption and focuses on
desires... even love is something to be consumed in what ever flavors
you want it to be packaged in... The idea of abstaining for the good of
the other is alien to our current cultural climate. The idea of the
gift of celibacy for the sake of love feel like it belongs to another
time or era and needs to be reclaimed by the church.

Thus...
We have created an environment that violates the core Biblical
principles of protecting those who are most vulnerable among us...
(symbolically seen in scripture as the "Orphan and the Widow" and Jesus'
use of the word "Children") and instead we have supercharged our social
environment with a culture of sexuality that increasingly promotes it
as something to be consumed.
Without reguard to sex, gender, or
personal preferences ... our current pattern of over focus on the wrong
things will not lead to the satisfaction and peace that only God can
provide. The most valuable realities of life can not be bought or sold.

Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit.

What we need in general is not more sex... but less... and far more
selective and limited in scope. A hug should be a safe gesture. A look
should be an invitation into friendship. It is hard to imagine in our
culture the idea of a "Holy Kiss". We need more healthy touch and less
sexualized touch.
Can we create an environment in our communities
that is safe for those who have experienced sex as a form of violence?
Human trafficking, the trade of humans as objects to feed our consumer
society, is on the rise... in our current cultural ways of being... and
this trafficking is most commonly for the purpose of sexual
exploitation. Can we stop this?

This is where I believe the
church needs to draw the line and why sexual exploitation is the human
slavery issue of our time... this is also why sexaul abuse inside the
church is such a violation. We are to be a safe place for those who are
broken...

Jesus was most gentle with those he encountered who
were broken by sexual brokenness. He never promoted it or encourage
more sexuality... rather he engage in humanizing the people who were
otherwise defined by this brokenness.

Biblical reality measures
the health of cultural patterns by the fruit that transpires through
them for 3 or more Generations and by the blessedness it is to others.
Ask the question... will through this ... will all the nations be
"blessed"? The truth of each of our live will actually play out in
history... and the generations after us will be faced with whatever we
actually live. Will love remain? Will we have an ecological
environment that promotes physical, emotional, and spiritual health?
When the answer is no... we are called to developing a pattern of
profound repentance. We must start with ourselves and become the
pattern of change we hope to share with others. To do otherwise is
hypocrisy.

The patterns of Friendship and fellowship that we so
desperately need... needs to learn from the wisdom of I John and
transcend our current patterns of consumerized friendships. It will
have to start with all of us being able to face our brokenness together
and to stop trying to pretend to be any better than anyone else.
Hypocrisy falls when humility rises. God persists in the light that
exposes us all for who we really are... and we all need God's healing
grace desperately... to think otherwise is simply a form of
self-deception. (I John 1:8)